The Monkey Painter (1743): Artwork and History

The Monkey Painter (1743) is in the Art Institute of Chicago collection. The museum lists its creator attribution as Pierre-Louis de Surugue (French, 1716-1772) after Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin (French, 1699-1779).

The work and its context

The Art Institute of Chicago describes the work:

Pierre-Louis Surugue seems to have made this print after the popular paintings by Jean-Baptiste-Simeon Chardin that were exhibited at the 1740 Salon (now in the Musee des Beaux-Arts,Chartres). The caption of the print says: The Monkey, exact imitator or parodist, Is a very common animal, And some men on this earth paint the one Who serves as a model to the other.

Object facts

• Title: The Monkey Painter
• Date: 1743
• Artist attribution: Pierre-Louis de Surugue (French, 1716-1772) after Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin (French, 1699-1779)
• Place of origin: France
• Medium: Etching with engraving in black on ivory laid paper
• Dimensions: Image: 27.7 × 22.8 cm (10 15/16 × 9 in.); Plate: 31.3 × 24.7 cm (12 3/8 × 9 3/4 in.); Sheet: 32 × 25.2 cm (12 5/8 × 9 15/16 in.)
• Type: Print
• Department: Prints and Drawings
• Reference number: 1958.551

Collection credit

Charles Greene Fund

View the original

Explore the artwork in the Art Institute's collection, including its image and the museum's current catalogue details.

The description above is credited to the Art Institute of Chicago and reused under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0; HTML formatting has been converted to plain text. Other catalogue metadata and the public-domain image are provided under CC0 1.0.